HEAL Network: Strengthening Health Resilience to Climate Change in Urban Areas

The Healthy Environments And Lives (HEAL) Network aims to increase sustainability and resilience to climate and environmental change across the Australian health sector and communities. Prioritising at-risk and vulnerable populations, the Network drives innovative research that enhances understanding of the links between climate, natural and built environments and health, and of the uneven distribution of environmental threats such as bushfires, floods and heatwaves. Through collaborations with research institutions, government, health sector, Indigenous and other non-governmental organisations, HEAL initiates research co-design processes building the capacity and capability needed to address major public health challenges such as climate change and disaster preparedness and response in urban areas.

The HEAL Network engages multiple Communities of Practice distributed across Australia which enable knowledge exchange and effective research translation into public health policy and practice. The Network promotes evidence-based adaptation and mitigation solutions, creating transformations in urban planning and built environments that can minimise adverse health impacts, social inequities and environmental degradation. Through conducting needs analyses and stakeholder consultations, the HEAL Network has developed ten interdisciplinary research themes which include urban health; Indigenous knowledge systems; data and decision support systems; science communication; health system resilience; bushfires and extreme events; food, soil, and water security; biosecurity and emerging infectious diseases; rural and remote health; and lifecourse solutions for at-risk populations.

Through working with local, regional and federal governments, health practitioners, service providers, communities, civil society organisations and industry stakeholders, the HEAL Network is establishing core priorities and new pathways for participatory action research that can holistically address environmental, climate and health issues in urban settings. Key urban health research, policy and practice innovations focus on air quality monitoring and reporting, housing interventions to increase sustainability and climate resilience, nature-based solutions such as expanding access to green spaces, active travel and public transport improvements in urban areas.